Brazen burglary at Walnut Creek Tiffany's investigated

Walnut Creek police are investigating a high-end smash and grab at the home of the little blue box -- Tiffany's jewelry store.

Officials say they're going through surveillance video from the store in the Broadway Plaza Shopping Center and from surrounding cameras in other stores. They say they haven't found anything good yet. So, at this point, it looks like these guys have pulled off quite the robbery.

It looked like a scene from a movie -- the doors of a Tiffany & Co. store bashed open by a pick-up truck and four masked men running in to rob the place. Yet it played out in downtown Walnut Creek at 5:45 a.m. Thursday. They pulled it off, which police say is not easy to do.

"The outside of Tiffany's is pretty secure and it was quite a feat to get in," Lt. Steve Gorski said. "Also, on the inside their merchandise is pretty secure so it took 'em awhile, probably longer than they had anticipated."

The thieves were ambitious. Police said they carried in a bin to help carry their loot. They did manage to smash one jewelry case, but officials say they didn't get away with much.

"There is jewelry scattered around the floor there," Lt. Gorski said. "But it's small jewelry, it's like the stuff that's left out overnight. The high end stuff, the more expensive merchandise is locked up."

The truck they used to break in was stolen out of Citrus Heights. Witnesses told police they escaped in a white SUV. As police conducted their investigation on the busy corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Main Street, people stopped and marveled that someone would do this. Peter Murray works next door at the Apple store.

"Something as impressive as backing your truck all the way through the front door of Tiffany's is pretty impressive," he said.

Lane waters the plants for the stores around Tiffany's and should have been here when the robbery was happening, but was running about 15 minutes late.

"I'm sure they were armed to do something that brazen so I'm very relieved I wasn't here," he said.

Police say there is no indication at this point that the men were armed, but they can't really tell much from the video.

As for Tiffany's, the shades are drawn and they are closed for the day. They have not commented on the robbery.

Police say they do have some witnesses. There were some employees waiting to get into work at other stores. They saw it happen. That's how officials found out about that white SUV. So police are talking to witnesses and looking at surveillance video to make sure these men don't get away with it. But as of right now, there is no sight of those men or the SUV.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Walnut Creek police at (925) 256-3557.